Young’s Oatmeal Stout

Wells & Young’s Brewing Company Ltd.

Since fall arrived a wee bit earlier than I’d hoped in my hood, I figured it was time to shelve the beers of summer (which were many)–lagers, hefeweizens, Belgian Ales and the like and move on to my favorite beer of all–stout.  A fellow contributor recently reviewed my favorite beer on the planet, Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout so I figured another English Oatmeal Stout would be worth my time and hard earned dough–Young’s Oatmeal Stout.  Sadly, this stout fell a bit short.  It poured pretty well with a nice head and had great color and scent, but that was sort of the highlight for the beer.

Unlike other stouts I’m a fan of, this one was pretty bitter and had somewhat of a ‘burnt’ finish–and not nearly as ‘creamy’ or smooth as a comparable oatmeal stout (cough, cough–Sam Smiths…).  While I’ve had far worse stouts, this certainly didn’t give me the ‘wow’ factor I’d hoped for.  As I said, the scent was wonderful–a large tan head from the pour produced a smoky, almost almond smell and the dark black/brown visual in the glass that had me salivating.  But as I said, that was the highlight of this brew.  The flavor was a little flat and bland.  I guess if I had to say anything definitively about this beer it was like the state of  Ohio–you know, pretty mediocre.  I’ve had worse, but certainly have had better.

Rating: **1/2

An adequate Oatmeal stout, but compared to other stouts–namely Sam Smith’s Oatmeal–it falls a little short.